La Maravilla
by QuillPenAndAnInkJar
Summary: Five years after that fateful Día de los Muertos, Miguel and his younger sister, Coco, still tell Hector's story. But one little mistake brings that story to life. For a year, the Riveras have a job to do - go through their everyday life while helping out another, more magical being.
1. Stories Come to Life

**Hi! I got so many requests for another Coco story after my last one, _My Proud Corazón_ , but I didn't know what to write about - until I came up with this idea. I hope you enjoy. This one might not seem long right now, but this one will be multi-chapter, so you'll get even more of this story than you probably would ever want. Have fun! Oh, and by the way, even though the picture is the same, this story isn't connected to _My Proud Corazón._**

 **(Disclaimer: Coco is the property of Disney and Pixar - not me.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 1:_**

 ** _Stories Come to Life_**

"You remember the story?" Miguel said, his sister Coco sitting on his lap. Just a few feet away was the ofrenda table, with pictures sitting in a pile next to a few plates of food and a pile of marigold petals.

"Sí, but I want you to tell me again," Coco said. "Please?"

"Okay, okay," Miguel said. He didn't mind telling the story again anyway - the more remembering he could do, especially on Día de los Muertos, the better.

"A long time ago, a man and a woman fell in love," Miguel said. "The woman was named Imelda, and the man was named Hector. They decided to get married."

"And then they had a baby!" Coco interjected. "Our Mamá Coco."

"Exactly!" Miguel said. "And Hector was a musician - a songwriter. So he went on tour with his childhood friend, Ernesto de la Cruz. Imelda was heartbroken - she didn't think he would ever come back."

"But she kept telling Coco that Papá Hector would come back," Coco said.

Miguel nodded. "Each day, Coco would ask, 'Is Papá coming? Is Papá home?' And each day, Imelda would say, 'Not today, m'ija. Not today.' And so it was, for days and days, until Imelda decided to tell her daughter, 'We don't need your father anymore.'"

"And they became shoemakers!" Coco said.

"That's right," Miguel said. "Meanwhile, Hector was still on tour with Ernesto, but he was missing his family, and he decided to go back. Ernesto sent him off with a toast - but he _poisoned_ the drink!"

"And Hector went to the Land of the Dead," Coco said. "I don't like this part."

Miguel nodded. "Neither do I. And for years and years, Mamá Imelda shut her family off from all music. Ernesto had stolen her husband's songs and become famous with them - that is, until he died when a giant bell was dropped upon him."

"I like that part," Coco said.

Miguel couldn't help but laugh. "Me too. So the years went by. Eventually, Imelda followed her husband to the Land of the Dead, but she still cut off all ties with him. He was devastated. Coco lived on, however, and her daughter -"

"Mamá Elena!" Coco said excitedly.

Miguel smiled. "Elena was just like Imelda. She forbid music, and her family learned to live with it. Except for one little boy, with a hideout in the attic and a love for the music of Ernesto de la Cruz."

"You!" Coco said. "It was you, it was you, it was you!"

"Exactly!" Miguel said. "And I decided to steal Ernesto's guitar from his tomb to play in the Plaza for the Día de Muertos Talent Show. But what I didn't know was that stealing from the dead would get you stuck in the Land of the Dead."

"And you worked with Hector to get to Ernesto, because you thought that you were related to him."

Miguel scoffed. "Yeah - not the best decision I've made. So when I finally got to him, I learned that he killed Hector, and then I learned that Hector was my _actual_ great-great-grandfather - and he and Imelda made up and sent me back, just before Hector could be forgotten."

"And you sang with Mamá Coco, and she found a picture of Hector so he could be remembered."

"And every year, no matter who's still alive and who's passed on, we tell their story, so that they can be remembered for as long as we can let them be," Miguel said.

Coco smiled. "Again!"

"I think that's enough talking for today," Miguel said. "How about we set up the ofrenda?"

"I like that idea," Coco said. Miguel carefully lifted his sister off his lap and walked her over to the table.

"Now remember, we have to keep a straight path of marigolds, all the way to the Plaza de Santa Cecilia," Miguel said as the two siblings grabbed handfuls of petals and began to sprinkle them out of the room and down the road. "Otherwise, Hector and Imelda and Coco can't find their way to us."

"Can we sing while we work?" Coco asked.

Miguel smiled. "Hermana, we can sing all we want!"

"Can we sing 'The World Es Mi Familia?'" she asked.

"Sure - I love that song," Miguel said. "Papá Hector wrote that song after a show in Nuevo Laredo; there weren't many people there, but he met a couple there who told him and Ernesto that they were un formidable dúo."

Coco smiled and began to sing as she continued to scatter the marigold petals. Miguel, as always, was amazed at how sweet and pure her voice was. He wondered if this was what Hector felt like, when he heard _his_ Coco sing.

After a few minutes and cycling through multiple Hector Rivera songs, the siblings arrived at la Plaza de Santa Cecilia, their petal trail meeting up with a large pile of the same bright, orange petals.

"Now this is where the marigold bridge starts," Miguel said, gesturing off into the distance. "We can't see it, but on Día de Muertos, these petals create a pathway between our world and the Land of the Dead, so our ancestors can come over."

"Why can't we see them?" Coco asked.

"Because…" Miguel stammered. To be honest, he didn't know. Finally, he decided on an answer.

"Because we need to be able to respect how fragile life is," he said. "If we saw them every year, it wouldn't feel like we needed to respect them as much."

Coco nodded. "Got it. Oh, look, there's Ernesto's tomb!"

Miguel looked up. Sure enough, there was the mausoleum of the murderer, now fallen into disrepair; just above the stone carving "Remember Me," there was a wooden plaque saying "Forget You."

Miguel smiled. "That's it, all right."

* * *

He woke up the day after, exhausted. After a night of partying and singing and eating, it was good to be able to rest for a bit.

He yawned, going downstairs into the ofrenda room. The table was still set up, the picture of Hector, Imelda, and Coco as the crown jewel of a beautiful family tree.

He looked into the corner of the room. There was Coco's wicker wheelchair, tenderly preserved.

"Remember me," he quietly sang. "Though I have to say goodbye, remember me. Don't let it make you cry. For even if I'm far away, I hold you in my heart - I sing a secret song to you each night we are apart. Remember me - though I have to travel far, remember me each time you hear a sad guitar. Know that I'm with you the only way that I can be - until I'm in your arms again…"

His voice trailed off. It had been five years, but he still missed her. It was like a scabbed wound that coming down here had just picked off.

"Remember me…"

The voice finishing the song made Miguel jump. It wasn't anyone from his family - or rather, it wasn't anyone from his family that he had seen in five years...

He turned around to see a man, taller than him, in a finely-tailored outfit with Rivera shoes. The man was pale and bony - literally.

"Papá Hector?" Miguel asked.

The figure shrugged. "Surprise, m'ijo."

As quickly as he could, Miguel ran up and gave his great-great-grandfather a hug.

"Okay, okay, I get it, you missed me," Hector said, returning the hug.

"Wait…" Miguel looked up. "How are you here? I mean, how can I see you?"

"Well…" Hector said abashedly. "I _may_ have stayed a little late at the ofrenda."

Miguel sighed. "Por supuesto…"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! This is just the start of a big adventure for Miguel, Hector, and the entire cast of Coco. Be sure to keep on reading!**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!). Thanks!**


	2. The Introduction

**Hi everyone! It's been a pretty long wait, so I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 2:_**

 ** _The Introduction_**

"Okay," Miguel said, his family in front of him. He stood in front of a large curtain, Hector hiding behind it. "So I should explain why I called this family meeting to order."

"Please do," Mamá Elena said, Coco sitting in her lap.

Miguel took a deep breath. "So, I went down to the ofrenda room, and I was singing a song, and I heard another voice singing."

"Who was it?" Papá Franco asked, puzzled.

"My great-great-grandfather," Miguel said.

The room was silent. Then Tío Berto burst out laughing.

"Ya mean Papá Hector?" he chortled. "He's been dead for almost a hundred years - how on earth could you have heard him singing -"

Miguel looked behind the curtain. "Now," he said.

Hector nodded, screwing his head off and lifting it above the curtain. "Hola," he said.

Tío Berto's eyes widened.

"But - but - that's a - that's -"

"It's Papá Hector," Miguel said.

"But how?" Mamá Elena asked, flabbergasted.

"I stayed late at the ofrenda, and I'm trapped here," Hector admitted, putting his head back on and stepping out from behind the curtain.

"So...you're Papá Hector," Coco said.

"That's right, m'ija," Hector said. "And who might you be?"

"I'm Coco," she said. "Miguel's sister."

"Your name's Coco?" Hector said. Coco nodded, and Hector looked back at Miguel for confirmation.

Miguel shrugged. "It was only fitting - she was born the day after Mamá Coco joined you."

Hector was beaming. "I love it," he said, turning back to Coco. "I named my daughter the same thing."

"And then you went on the tour with Ernesto and got poisoned," Coco said.

Hector was surprised, but not mad. He looked at Miguel.

"She asks for the story every Día de Muertos," he said. "The bell incident is her favorite part."

Hector smiled. "Well, anyway, the point is, I'm stuck here until next Día de Muertos," he said, turning back to the Riveras. "So we need to figure out what to do with...with that."

"Exactly," Miguel said, turning to the family.

"Well, we need to hide him from the rest of the town," Mamá Luisa said. "What would people think if they saw us walking down the street with a skeleton?"

"It would be like when I was in the Land of the Dead, probably," Miguel said. "Everyone looked at me like I was...wrong, even just being there."

"Well, usually living boys don't end up in the Land of the Dead," Hector pointed out. "I think you're it."

Miguel laughed. "I'm a history maker," he joked. "But anyway, we'll need to keep you hidden somehow."

"I could always disguise myself as a human, the way I disguised you as a skeleton in the Land of the Dead," Hector said. "Although it's a _little_ bit hard to disguise a skeleton as a human."

Miguel nodded. "You'd probably need a nose to do that."

Coco started giggling, and Mamá Elena quieted her down.

"Alright - so we're going to keep Hector here, hidden from the Land of the Living until we can figure out how the heck to make a good disguise for him," Miguel said. "I adjourn this family meeting."

He banged his hand on a nearby table, like a gavel. "Ow," he said.

"You should've asked me," Hector said, the family standing up and walking away. "I don't really have anything to hurt."

Miguel smiled. Having Hector around was going to be fun.

* * *

"More tamales, Miguel?" Mamá Elena said as she walked around the table.

"Sí," he said, using his fork to clear some room on his plate amid all the rice and beans. Elena put three tamales on the plate, steam rising off them like a cloud of dust.

"What do you say to your grandmother, Miguel?" Papá Enrique said.

"Gracias, Abuela," Miguel said.

"De nada," Mamá Elena said. "Any tamales for you, Papá Hector?"

"Non, gracias," Hector said. "I got a lot from the ofrenda last night."

Mamá Elena looked disappointed, but she shrugged and put the basket of tamales in the center of the table. "If you change your mind, they're right there."

"Thanks," Hector said.

Miguel took a bite of a tamale. "Ya sure you don't want these, Papá Hector? Mamá Elena's a great cook."

"I can tell," Hector teased. "But no - I'm still pretty full from last night. Thanks anyway."

"No problem," Miguel said, taking another bite. "So how are Mamá Imelda and Mamá Coco doing?"

"They're good," Hector said. "Coco's still getting used to the Land of the Dead - after a show last year, she asked me how I did all my - uh, my acrobatics - like I did today with the curtain. So now I'm teaching her every Wednesday at sundown."

"That sounds like fun," Miguel said. "I always thought that was so cool - like when we were at the talent show together."

"It comes with being me, I guess," Hector said.

"So I assume you and Imelda are getting along a little better," Miguel said.

Hector nodded. "I think nearly being forgotten and coming back did the trick."

"And she doesn't mind you being a musician anymore?"

"After her performance at the Sunrise Spectacular five years ago? Never," Hector said. "We actually perform together - most of the people in the Land of the Dead have abandoned Ernesto, so we run the Sunrise Spectacular now."

"That's really cool! I bet you and Imelda are amazing," Miguel said. Suddenly, he remembered something. "Wait...you said _most_ of the people have abandoned Ernesto. Are there still people who like him?"

"Diehard fans - people who weren't at the show, or people who just choose to ignore the show. Oh, and his parents."

Miguel nearly spit out his tamale. "His _parents_?"

"Sure," Hector said. "He has parents - just like you. He spun the story to make it sound like I provoked him, and he had to do it for his safety."

Miguel groaned. "That's annoying," he said. "We have people like that here, too - even after I told the world about everything he did to you, there are still a few people who swear by his music."

"Well, it's good music, I hope - just not the best voice behind it," Hector said.

"Oh, yeah - they still love 'Remember Me' and 'Un Poco Loco' and stuff like that, but all the recordings are of him," Miguel said. "Some people have recorded their own versions, some people have just decided to grin and bear it, and some people say that someone who sings such good songs just _can't_ be bad."

"That's definitely not good," Hector said.

"Well, maybe while you're here, you can record the songs and we can release them as, like, 'long-lost recordings of Hector Rivera' or something like that," Miguel said. "That is, if we can figure out that whole _disguise_ thing."

"Or you could sing them," Hector said. "You always sing them on Día de los Muertos, and you sound amazing."

"Gracias," Miguel said. "Maybe we could sing them together, like at the talent show. 'Un Poco Loco' is practically made to be a duet."

"I'd love that," Hector said, smiling. "I mean, they were duets originally - Ernesto and I would sing them all over as duets, so...I guess you're my new Ernesto."

"Please don't call me that," Miguel said, laughing. Hector joined in with his hearty laugh.

Everything would be fine.

* * *

After dinner, Miguel was reading a book when he heard the sound of guitar music from upstairs.

"Mamá Elena?" he asked as his grandmother passed by him. "Who's that playing upstairs?"

She shrugged. "No sé, m'ijo."

"Thanks anyway," he said as Mamá Elena walked away. He looked at the page number.

"193," he said to himself, hoping he'd remember. He closed the book, put it down, and got up from the chair he was in. Step by step, Miguel went upstairs, wondering who was playing the music.

As he got closer, he heard a voice singing along to the music - it was "Remember Me," and Miguel knew instantly who it was. He peeked his head into his sister's room, where she was sitting in her beautiful pink nightgown, watching Hector sing softly to her. At the line "Know that I'm with you the only way that I can be," she started to sing along - she knew every word.

At the end of the song, she clapped. "Again! Again!"

"Not now, m'ija," Hector said. "You need to get to sleep. It's been a big day."

She nodded, climbing into her bed and pulling the covers over her body. "Buenas noches, Papá Hector."

He smiled and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Buenas noches, m'ija."

He turned to leave and saw Miguel's face, leaning in from the side of the doorframe.

"You should be in bed, too," Hector said. Before he could say anything else, Miguel gave him an even bigger hug than the one he had given that morning.

"What's this for?" Hector asked.

"Congratulations," Miguel said. "You just got another chance to be a dad."

Hector smiled and hugged Miguel back. "You _should_ be asleep by now, you know," he joked as they walked to Miguel's room together, hand in hand.

* * *

 **I hope you liked the chapter! As soon as I got the idea for this story, I _knew_ that I wanted to have Hector and Coco sing "Remember Me" together, just like he had done with the elder Coco in the flashback in the movie. And the thing that Miguel does with his book, where he looks at the page number and says it aloud so that he can hopefully remember it - that is something I literally do all the time.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


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